The Game of School refers to strategic learning; doing the bare minimum to perform well on tests and projects without intending to retain any information. The author of "Passionate Teaching" lays out indicators of the Game of School, which include students asking questions about reading assignments based off only the first page or asking questions so wild that the teacher knows did not come from the reading at all. Teachers, too, play the game of school: Fried says teachers spend far too much time taking attendance, giving out seating assignments, and assigning homework and tests and not actually teaching. The students see the teacher is "skating by" doing the bare minimum, and so they are not motivated to work any harder. Jaded administrators do not tend to oppose these policies, that is, until standardized test scores say their schools do not perform well. The author says there are different types of students: A students who do whatever the teacher asks but do not think for themselves, B students who write in clichés and assume that will be enough to earn a good grade, C students who do even less work to get by, and D students who should be failing but somehow are not. Students who do not attempt to ask questions or debate with other students also play the Game of School; they either do not care about what is going on or do not want to give their classmates the impression that they care. Teachers who teach without stopping to explain their subjects and assign short-asnwer instead of essay questions and administrators who care more about lesson plan completion and having a violence- and vandalism-free school than having a well-educated student body are also indicators of the Game of School. Guidance counselors who place underprivileged kids in low-level classes participate in the Game of School, as do parents who do not complain about that practice. Parents also play the Game of School by complaining about their children's grades without trying to understand the curriculum or push their children into things that will "look good for college" without their interests.
I definitely used the Game of School in high school; I prioritized courses based on which were the most difficult, and, regrettably, which I cared about the most, even though all were equally important to my education. In freshman year, I did not even do all of my math homework, and math always fell behind science classes because I never liked the subject. By senior year, however, I had adjusted my learning and was determined to succeed in all of my classes, and my grades reflected that. Beyond grades, though, my personal knowledge base reflects my effort; I truly remember my work from my senior year courses, not because they were the most recent, but because I embraced deep learning instead of strategic learning and saw its benefits. In college, I plan to continue deep learning, researching subjects from each course that interest me and attempting to understand the core parts of every class on a deep and personal level so I can retain information long-term and relate it to information for other courses.
I definitely used the Game of School in high school; I prioritized courses based on which were the most difficult, and, regrettably, which I cared about the most, even though all were equally important to my education. In freshman year, I did not even do all of my math homework, and math always fell behind science classes because I never liked the subject. By senior year, however, I had adjusted my learning and was determined to succeed in all of my classes, and my grades reflected that. Beyond grades, though, my personal knowledge base reflects my effort; I truly remember my work from my senior year courses, not because they were the most recent, but because I embraced deep learning instead of strategic learning and saw its benefits. In college, I plan to continue deep learning, researching subjects from each course that interest me and attempting to understand the core parts of every class on a deep and personal level so I can retain information long-term and relate it to information for other courses.